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SYLVICULTURE 



BY 



ELI KrPRlCE 




"22 W. 






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s ^r i_. ^ri o xj n. T xj lE^ E . 

BY ELI K. PRICE. 

{Read before the American FhilosopJiical Society, November \iiand Decem- 
ber 7, 1877.) 

B}'^ the will of Andre Francois MicUaux, the American Philosophical So- 
ciety is, to the extent of the means afForded by his legacy, charged with 
the trust, to contribute in this country " to the extension and progress of ag- 
riculture, and more especially in Sylviculture in the United States." This 
Society, also, by its Charter is under the obligation of diffusing useful 
knowledge ; and few subjects can l)e more useful than the cultivation of 
trees. 

It becomes us, therefore, to consider how we can promote the cultivation 
of trees in this country ; how make that cultivation subserve the interests 
of agriculture ; and in what manner, and how widely we may fulfill these 
duties, and diffuse useful knowledge upon these subjects. 

Mr. Michaux, as well as his father, spent his life in acquiring knowl- 
edge of trees, and wrote his volumes to describe them, not only to promote 
science, but to teach their uses and value as timber. He has intended that 
we should do more. He intended that we should promote the growth of 
trees, and also extend the growth of agriculture ; by the intlueuce of tree- 
culture upon climate, soil and the water supply, whereby to increase the 
food of man and beast, and thereby to multiply the population of the 
world. 

In a revoked will he had suggested the purchase of land, and the plant- 
ing of it with trees. In this he no doubt intended the exhibition of many 
varieties of kinds to give a scientific knowledge of them, and also intended 
that the groves there planted should he a centre of distribution of trees and 
their fruits. This idea has been held in view by this Society wlien it 
placed half the income of the legacy at the disposal of the Fairmount Park 
Commissioners, for the purchase, planting and distribution of trees and tree 
seeds. With half the income applied in this manner a more extensive good 
can be effected than by a separate application of the whole by the Society, 
which would of necessity have been at a more distant place, to be seen 
by a few only in the time that a thousand will see the trees in the Fair- 
mount Park, and obtain their seeds. In that Park the name of the Testa- 
tor has been honored by the plantings commenced in tlie "Micliaux 
Grove," Avhile thousands of trees procured by his provision are in the 
Nursery, waiting to be transplanted over the Park, of nearly three thou- 
sand acres, and elsewhere. These add to the variety of our plantings, and 
to the self sown trees of the native woods, thus adding increased attrac- 
tions for botanists and lovers of the landscapes. 

When Mr. Michaux extended his views to agriculture in connection with 
tree-culture, we must believe that he had in mind tlie influences of trees 



upon climate, the supply of rain and retention of water as means of growth 
of grass, the cereals and other crops. Let us consider then what are tliose 
influences, and how f;ir, as beneficent, they are within the control of man ; 
not that the means placed at our disposal by Mr. Michaux, can, in the trees 
they will plant, soon greatly influence climate, soil and rains ; yet by af- 
fording a perpetual source of supply of trees, a perpetual example and dif- 
fusion of knowledge to others, no one can prescribe limits, in space or 
time, to the good these limited means may effect. 

The Society will, therefore, I think, pardon me for taking a wide survey, 
for it and all others to fill in its outlined work, according to the measure 
of their ability, and in the aggregate, all may do a great good, that would 
not be attempted if the sphere of operation were not widely opened, and 
the necessity of co-operative action, and the waj^s and means of success, 
were not explained, to be kept in view at present, and in a long future. 
With our duty mapped out, we and our successors will see the surveyed 
field of operations, and will be stimulated by the grandeur and beneficence 
of the prospect opened for good to our fellow beings. 

It cannot be doubted tliat Nature will ever willingly do her pai't of the 
work if not thwarted by man ; nay, will do it exuberantly. The great 
need is to regulate and restrain his excess of destruction. Before man 
came upon the earth it had been densely covered by vegetation ; lience its 
pervading coal measures, lignites, and stores of oil that have been pre- 
served under the rocks to await the age of human intelligence necessary to 
develop them. In that age happily we live. 

We may well believe that the earliest of our race found our world covered 
with forests ; except in those places unfitted for their growth. These were 
the polar regions, where ice cuts off" tlie growth of trees ; the mountain 
crests where both cold and want of soil prevent all growth of trees, and 
arid deserts. Whether we may give trees to the deserts is only a question 
of procuring water and soil. Yet the seemingly barren lands cast up by 
the sea can be made to bear forests, and to flourish in vegetation. 

Before man's appearance, the great enemies of forest life did not exist. 
He alone could invent the axe and light the fire. Forests were then in ex- 
cess of man's needs, and were utilized in fossil coal. What evil he has done 
with the axe and fire, and how such evil may be repaired, we have to con- 
sider. True, the woods grow for legitimate uses ; for timber, for habita- 
tions, the mechanic arts and fuel ; but not for wasteful destruction. Tliey 
must also be felled for needful space and soil to grow the food that man 
and beast may live ; but not destroyed to an extent to put the supply of the 
food of life in peril ; or to so lessen it as to lessen population. In regions 
covered with timber capable of tillage, in excess of that point which will 
support the largest population in prosperity, clearing, without waste of 
what can be utilized, becomes a duty ; but to exceed that point is a wrong 
to humanity. In this we have the practical test that the wise and good 
will observe. Life to the greatest number of happy people is the moral and 
scientific problem and test of duty, as we must believe that such purpose 
was the intent of the Creator. 



Tiiking ill Iiund the light of Ilistor^y, let us pass over historic grounds to 
see whiit man has done to destnn^ the forests, and how and where he may 
prevent and remedy such devastations. Beginning at the supposed cradle 
of our race, we lind in the books of the Bible and contemporary histories 
frequent mention of the prcsenoe of forests, the coverts of wild beasts, and 
accessible woods to answer instan< requisitions for timber for building 
houses, bridges, towers and rams ; of trees for shade and fruit, and fuel ; 
and branches of trees upon which to hang malefactors. There were the 
cedars, firs, shittim wood, terebinth, sycamores, and oaks, upon moun- 
tains and plains, and the sacred groves upon the hills where the heathen 
worshiped, in a measure i)rotected as sacred by religion and superstition ; 
but in after time these were unavailing to save them. The fig, the date, 
the palm and the olive were better preserved, as necessities for food. ;uid 
willows sprang spontaneous along the edges of the water. 

Hesiod lived about a thousand years before Christ,. Speaking of Peace, 
Justice and Prosperity, lie says : 

" No days of famine to tlio rlRhteoiis fall, 

But all is plenty, aiul delishtful all; 

Nature indulgent o'er tlieir land is seen, 

With oaks high towering are their mountains green ; 

Witli heavy mast their arms diffusive bow 

While from their trunks rich streams of honey flow." 

Thus described were they as seen, as he watched his flock and courted 
the Muses on Helicon. And again Hesiod describes a wooded country 
when he speaks of the north wind ; says of it : 

" Bellowing through Thrace, tears up the lofty woods, 
Hardens the earth, and l)inds the rapid floods ! 
The mountain oak, high towering to the skies. 
Torn from his roots across the valley lies; 
Wide spreading ruin threatens all the sliore, 
Loud groans the earth, and all the forests roar." 

The beasts ; 

"Tlirough Woods, and through the shady vale they run 

To various haunts, the pincliing cold to shun : 

Some to the thicket of the forest flock. 

And some, for shelter, seek the hollow rock." 

Evelyn cites with satisfaction that when Xerxes passed conqueror 
through Achaia, he would not sutler his army to violate a tree ; "it being 
observed by the Ancients that the gods never permitted him to escaiie un- 
punished who injured groves." 

Near five hundred years before Christ, Eschylus makes the Chorus sing 
to Prometheus Bound, 

" Thy woes, beneath the sacred shndo 

Of -Vsia's pastured forests laid, 

The chaste inhabitant bewails, 

Thy groans re-echoing through his plaintive vales." 

And nearly five hundred years after the Christian Era, Basil the Great 



writing to Gregory the Great, fi-om the Isis that empties into tlie south 
side of tlie Black Sea, thus describes liis liome in that part of Asia Minor : 
"A high mountain clothed with thick woods, is watered to the north hy 
fresh and ever flowing streams. At the foot lies an extended plain, ren- 
dered fruitful bj^ the vapors with which it is moistened. The surrounding 
forest, crowded with trees of different kinds, encloses me as in a strong 
fortress." Humbolt's Cosmos, 393. 

Herodotus had thus nine hundred years before described the country' 
further to the East. "This part of Media, towards Saspires, is high and 
mountainous, and al)ounding with forests ; the rest of the country is a 
spacious plain." 

Of the north of Africa Herodotus says, " All the more western parts of 
Libya, are much more woody, and more infested with wild beasts, than that 
where the Libyan ISTomades reside ; for the abode of these latter advanc- 
ing eastward, is low and sandy. From hence westward, where those in- 
habit who till the ground, it is mountainous, full of wood, &c." (Ch. 99 ; 
Sec. 191.) 

Libya, or the region called Tripoli, extending from Egypt to Tunis, in 
the early Christian centuries while under Roman rule, was productive and 
populus, and when overrun by the followers of Mahomet, towards the end 
of the eighth century, was reputed to contain six millions of souls, and 
eighty -five Christian Bishops (Dr. F. L. Oswald), and now probal)ly not a 
million inhal)it the same space. Elesee Recluse says that "the examina- 
tion of the soil and the remains which are contained in it, proves that at a 
recent geological epoch, the Sahara was much less sterile than it now is. 
The Tribes of the Algerian Sahara say, that at the time of the Romans the 
Ouad-Souf was a great river, but some one threw a spell upon it, and it 
disappeared. (The Earth, 95.) That spell was an evil one, the destruc- 
tion of the forests. 

Dr. Oswald says, "On the plateau of Sidi-Belbez, in the very centre of 
the Sahara, Champollion traced the course of former rivers and creeks by 
the depressions in the soil and the shape of the smooth-washed pebbles. 
He also found tree stumps almost petrified, and covered by a six foot 
stratum of burning sand." He quotes Champollion as saying, "And so 
the astounding truth dawns upon us that this desert may once have been 
a region of groves and fountains, and the abode of happy millions. Is 
there any crime against Nature which draws down a more terrible curse 
than that of stripping Mother Earth of her sylvan covering? The hand of 
Man has produced this desert, and I verily believe every other desert on the 
surface of this earth. Earth was Eden once, and our misery is the punish- 
ment of our sins against the world of plants. The burning sun of the 
desert is the angel with the flaming sword who stands between us and 
Paradise." How certain, how sad, is this great trutii ! How awful then 
to. think of the millions more Avho might have lived but for man's ignor- 
ance, and folly and wickedness ; and to reflect upon the incalculable loss 
of happiness to those who did live, and have struggled with a deteriorated 
Nature for a miserable existence ! 



AccordiiiL; to Ctcsar and Tacitus, middle Europe was found by the Ro- 
mans heavily covered with forests, and in Gaul and Britain were the 
deeply shaded woods Avhere the Druids had practiced their gloomy religious 
rites, and ortered in sacrifice the victims of their terrible superstition. 

Now pass from eastward of Persia westward, and talie a survey of both 
sides of the Mediterranean as far as the Atlantic ocean, and we behold 
countries on everj^ hand stiipped of tlieir forests, with decrease of rains, 
Avitli fallen rivers, extended deserts, and depleted populations. This 
change from plenty to poverty is justly ascribed mainly to the destruction 
of the forests, which exposed the lands to a burning sun. The waters 
were dried up, and the soil was washed away l)y floods, or driven oil' by 
the winds, or covered over by ever drifting sands. 

The following are the percentages of woodlands left in the once densely 
timbered countries of Europe where forests liave not been adequately pro- 
tected : Naples, 9.43 ; Sardinia, 12.29 ; Italy, 20.7 ; Spain, 5.52 ; Portugal, 
4.40; France, IG.79; Belgium, 18.53; Holland, 7.10; Denmark, 5.50; 
Great Britain, 5 ; Switzerland, 15 ; while Gern\any yet has 26.^ ; Russia 
in Europe, 40 ; Sweden, 60 ; and Norway GG per cent, of their surface in 
forests. 

The lessons taught us bj' the other continents of the Eastern Hemis- 
phere, are both to avoid the cause of aridity, and to repair in time the 
mischiefs caused by man's improvidence. We liave in the west our "bad 
lands," our natural deserts, grassless and treeless, for want of water, and 
our grass covered prairies, also treeless, which can only be made productive 
of trees by the presence of water, and the absence of fires. Waters must 
be had by rains, or T)e drawn from the earth, or saved in reservoirs or 
tanks, to be spent in irrigation. We also have our exhausted lands on the 
Atlantic seaboard, which only need rest from tillage, and to be so^n with 
the seeds and planted with forest trees. 

What we can do for these may be seen by observing what has been be- 
gun to be done in other countries, not more favorably situated, where men 
have yet life and energy sufficing to repair ancestral delinquency. France 
has taken alarm and has begun the work of reparation. John Croumbie 
Brown has published a book of J551 pages entitled, "Reboisement in 
France," in wliicli he describes the evils suffered, and the remedies 
of prevention and restoration. lie shows the effect of stripping the 
mountains in east France of their trees has been to increase snow 
and land slides, which destroying that set in motion, also destroj's that 
swept over in the descant, and that covered by the deposit. When 
the rains come, or tlie snows melt, the torrents come quick, are rapid and 
resistless. They undermine the banks, and carry destruction with them. 
Nature here again begins the work of rest!)ration by scattering the seeds of 
the forest, and men have learned the wisdom of co-operating with Nature, 
and of letting her more alone. The}- now protect the forests, and the forests 
pri/mote "infiltration, retention, aiul percolation of water through the soil 
and subsoil, on which they grow." p. 38, 50. In other Departments the like 



6 

success has been attained as iu the High Alps. Where the trees grow, the 
springs flow ; where cut clown tlie springs dry up, and the streams grow 
less in their channels. There is less rain fall, and the soil retains less of 
what falls. 

On the west side of France from the Gironde to Bayoue, are the Landes, 
or Sand-dunes, which are sands carried inland from the seashore by the 
winds, until they cover 2,500,000 acres, and threatened to engulf the de- 
partments of Landes and Gironde. These, however, have been planted 
with the pine and other trees, and the forests now protect the country be- 
hind them, and the sands have been considerably subdued by cultivation, 
and arrested in their inward progress. 

In Algerian Africa the French Engineers, from 1850 to 1864, had dug 
eighty-three wells, which together yielded nearly twelve millions of gal- 
lons of water per minute, sufficient to nourish 125,000 palm trees. (The 
Earth, by Elisee Reclus, 95) ; so that even the desert may be made to yield 
fountains of water, and can be clothed with arborial fruit and verdure ; 
and it may be in this way that our treeless regions of the Far West can be 
nttacked by American enterprise. Our warm south and south-west would, 
with supply of rain and irrigation, yield greatly increased quantities of 
semi-tropical fruit and forest trees of most valuable kinds. 

It is the work of reparation of the wrong that man has done to Nature, 
and the prevention of the repetition of such wrong, that must now be the 
subject of our consideration, practical action, and admonition to others. 

Let us first be sure that we are acting upon a true theory. Tliere are 
those who think that forests have but little or no influence in producing or 
attracting rains ; men whose opinions are entitled to great consideration 
and respect. Yet we well know that whenever the currents of air, laden 
with the moisture of evaporation, strike the cooler mountains, rain is pre- 
cipitated. So woods, we may believe, may be so elevated and cool as to 
produce showers from clouds charged near to the point of precipitation, as 
the dew falls by a slight difterence of temperature between day and night. 

Men in the valley or plain often do see clouds pass over them to fall as rain 
on hills and woods more elevated. We know too that countries have less 
rain-fall by reason of the deprivation of their forests. Travelers so report of 
Malta, the Cape Verde Islands, St. Helena, and in Aragna, Venezuela, ac- 
cording to Humbolt ; and in Egypt, where the date palm and the olive have 
of recent time been plentifully planted, the rains have become more fre- 
quent : (Dr. Franklin B. Hough's Report to Congress in 1874, p. 21). Dr. 
Oswald reports that a rise has taken place in Egypt in the annual rain-fall, 
from 9 to IG inches, since the increased planting of trees. 

It is quite certain that trees preserve the waters in the ground, and 
maintain the flow of the springs and streams. If trees be felled, and the 
sun be let in, the ground is dried, and its moisture is carried away by 
evaporation instead of percolating into the earth to reach the channels of 
the springs, and these also dry up. If the springs fail, the rivulets must 
fail, and rivers must fall. 



Reclus says, '-Trees, after they have received the water upon their foli- 
age, let it trickle down drop by drop on the gradually softened eaith, and 
thus facilitate the gentle permeation of the moisture into the substratum ; 
another part of the water runuin'j; down the trunk, and along the roots, at 
once tinds its way to the lower strata." (The Earth, 223). 

The facts arc abundant in proof that to part with the trees is to lose the 
springs they protect, the running streams the springs supply, and the vol- 
ume of the broad river. These lost, all the charm of the landscape has fled, 
and then this source of man's refinement and civilization has also left the 
world. With loss of rains and springs the fruitfulness of the earth also 
passes away. Grass fails for flock and herd, and the bread of life for 
man is no longer sure, and only because man has betrayed his trust. 

Australia attbrds corroborative testimony. In the Tribune of December 
1st, I find this statement : "Mr. Landsborough, an explorer of note, says, 
' Keeping sheep is no longer so profitable there as it used to be, but on the 
other hand, large tracts of land that were worthless before, have latterly 
become tit for agriculture. There is a decided increase of forests and of 
moisture in parts of Australia, giving liope that eventually the whole in- 
terior desert may be reclaimed. The direct effect of sheep-raising has been 
to keep down the tall grass which formerly aflorded material for destruc- 
tive fires. The trees, young and old, had been periodically burnt by these 
fires, until the country bec3ming almost treeless, its climate had been ren- 
dered arid and its soil sterile. If the facts in Australia can be established, 
they will afford the most remai-kable instance yet recorded of climate being 
modified by the labors and surroundings of civilized man.' " 

Trees, better than all else, protect the slopes from washing into gullies, 
and the loss of the soil by rains. A carpet of grass Avill do much to protect 
the earth from washing ; but is not impervious to the beatings of storms, 
and the small beginnings of erosions ever enlarge their channels by under- 
mining the roots of grass. The sides of our hills and the sodded slopes of 
lailroads show this. The force of the unintercepted drops of the driving 
rains does the work of excoriation. The leaves of the sheltering forest 
break tlie force of the rain, and the arrested waters trickle in slow drops to 
the ground, and gradually soak into it without washing the soil. The cov- 
ering of the fallen leaves also prevents disturbance of the soil, and the 
leaves growing above, and those dead below as well, intercept the rays of 
the sun, and check evaporation. The retained waters must find their exit 
by the springs. 

Tlie forests in due proportion are also shelter and protection of the grow- 
ing crops of the farmer from the force of driving storms. They are a shel- 
ter for grazing cattle, and shelter for house and barn, and man and beast 
thus kept warmer thrive better. Trees also slielter trees, and nortiiwardly 
planted belts largely increase t.he growths of nurseries and orchards. 

Now what is the due proportion of woodlands V A Duke of Burgmuly's 
rule, as quoted by Dr. Oswald, is, "One-third to the hunter, two thirds to 
the husbandman." William Penn's direction to his colonists was, that 



8 

"iu clcariug tlio ground care be taken to leave one acre of trees for every 
five acres cleared ; especially to preserve oak and mulberry trees for silk 
and shipping." His father, Admiral Penn, would have included in it 
" shipi)ing, " for the purpose of maintaining a navy ; still an object of our 
statesmen so far as iron has not superceded wood. 

Thus William Penn's rule was to leave one for five acres cleared, or 1G| 
per cent, of wood appendant to each farm ; of course, so much besides 
the w«oded hills, sand-dunes and mountain tracts. For the entire country, 
and for the general good of foi-estry and agriculture his proportion of 
woodland is probably something too small. The proportion of woodlands 
in the entire area of these States, taking into consideration water surface, 
cities, highways, &c., is 29 per cent. ; including Territories, is 25 per cent. ; 
showing a disproportion of our Territories to be woodless. 

Dr. Hough gives the rule of proportion of wood with reference to the 
true test. He says " There can be no doubt but that injuries may result, 
as well to agricultural interests as to the public, from an excess of forest 
growth. It is the highest aim of forestry to attain the golden mean be- 
tween too mucli and too little, and on this due balance of field and grove 
depends that equilibrium of health and wealth that promises the greatest 
amount of human happiness to the greatest number, and through the 
longest period of time." Report, p. 32. 

It is impracticable to bring the different States or sections of the United 
States to approximate any uniform standard as to the proper proportion of 
woodlands. It would generally be unprofitable to attempt to make araljle, 
steep, stony and rough mountain lands, or poor sandy tracts, or deep 
swamps and ever-glades. But it is the interest of all to keep these wooded, 
and to reforest the lands worn out by cropping, that they may not become 
dry deserts. But every vast continuity of forest should be broken for ag- 
riculture, intercourse and security of health, property and life, and regions 
of prairie and deserts be made to bear a due proportion of forests. 

And farm lands should be interspersed with trees to preserve them in tlie 
best agricultural condition. To do tliis, few farmers, though tliey draw their 
fuel from the mines, are inclined, by planting areas of cultivated or pastured 
fields. This they would not consider economical. But they could with little 
loss of useful space, plant the most sunny side of every road passing through 
their farms, and thus the farming soil would be little shaded, and the roots 
of the trees draw the greater part of their nourishment from the soil under 
tlie highway. The public would be gainers in grateful shade, and the 
farmers would have the protection of the roadside trees and their shade ; 
and finally, their use as timber as they come to maturitj^ and are replaced 
by renewed plantings. To do so much, an enligliiened self-interest should 
impel them. 

In addition let every farmer keep open and flowing all his springs for drink 
for his herds and flocks ; plant around them groves of trees, both to pre- 
serve the flow of the water, and to afford shade to man and beast. 
Every railroad company should plant trees on tlie sunnj^ side of their line 



9 

of tracks tor sluulc, and for cross-lies aiul car tiinhir, against the lime wlieii 
lumber will surely become more scarce ; and should, for its best self-inter- 
est, use every device to avoid firing the forests, and use cross -ties that have 
been barked, creosoted, kyanlzed, or ^turated with boiling tar. The in- 
terest they have at stake to economize is incalculable. 

Legislation is not here suggested, except it be to authorize the roadside 
planting ; and, perhaps, counties to offer rewards for such planting. The 
functions of our Societ}' in regard to tree planting are two : to diffuse use- 
ful knowledge, and to execute the trusts of the Michaux legacj% yet this is 
to co-oi)erate in a sphere of action tiiat is boundless and endless. True, our 
fund is small, but held by a perpetual trustee, its munificence should be 
perpetual ; its beneficent effects never cease to spread, and the knowledge 
we impart and incentive we give, may bring sympathetic and enduring 
aid by many others, by the States, and the United States. 

When we consider that trees require the growth of many j'cars ; that 
large tracts of countr)^ are denuded, which can be more profitably used 
by reforesting than otherwise, and that to make the reforesting useful and 
profitable, there must be choice of trees, and skill in tlie manner of their 
management and care, we must see ihat no time should be lost. This gen- 
eration should begin the work effectively, and enjoin the duty ui)on those 
to follow. 

The kinds of trees to be preferred by considerations of durabilitj^ and 
their multifarious uses, are the American White Oak ; the American 
AVhite Pine ; the American White Ash ; the American Elm ; the Chest- 
nut, Walnut, Hickory and Larch. To this list of trees is to be added the 
Eucalyptus, or Blue Gum, of Australia, for its anti-malarial properties, and 
lor its rapid growth, 3'ct excellent timber. Its wood is white, about as hard, 
but a little stronger than the be.st Eastern Ash. (J. T. Stratton, Agl. Reps, 
of '75, p. 34.)). The planting and management must be left to professional 
skill. 

The ^Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, who received 
two-fifths of the Michaux Estate, have offered prizes f )r the cultivation of 
plantations of not less than five acres, to be planted Avith the European 
Larch, Scotch and Corsican Pine, and American White Ash. The compe- 
tition will be likely to exact the use of farm lands, while agricultural 
economy requires the chief sowing and planting of trees to be on the stony 
places, and profitless sandy spots, such as are often savingly allotted to 
bur}^ the dead. These too may be planted with economy and pleasing ef- 
fect. 

Annexed to their circular is a very valuable Essay by Professor C. S. 
Sargent, Director of the Botanic Gardeu and Arboretum of Harvard Uui- 
versitj'. This I have read since writing the preceding pages, and the facis 
and opinions by him expressed, sustain the foregoing views. He shows by 
suflieient testimony that woods do produce rainfalls ; do preserve springs 
and rivers ; do protect the soil and crops, nurseries and orchards ; that 
sandy lands though exposed to the fierce winds of the seashore, have pro- 



\ • 10 

duced largely in Massachusetts, the Larch and Scotch Pine, besides Oalis, 
Ashes, Maples, Norway Spruce and Austrian and Corsican Pines. He 
recommends a protecting belt of trees to be planted on the northern side 
of every farm. The proper proportion of forest for Massachusetts he con- 
siders to be 25 per cent. Besides the woodlands in the State, there arc 
nearly two millions of acres of unimproved lands, 1,200,000 acres of which 
is admirably suited for forest growth, the value of the timber on which, in 
fifty years, could only be reckoned by hundreds of millions. True, this 
would devote half the State to Sylviculture ; yet, he thinks it would be its 
most profitable use, and be a benefit to that and other States. 

Professor Sargent expresses his concern at the rapid destruction of 
timber in the United States, as sure to enhance its price, and produce many 
agricultural evils. He says, " Every year the destruction of the American 
forests threaten us with new dangers. Every year renders it more impera- 
tive to provide some measures to check the evils which our predecessors in 
their ignorance have left us as a legacy.»with which to begin the second 
century of our Republic." 

The Professor calculates so large a timber profit to his State, besides other 
advantages as to make it a moral duty, and patriotic achievement, to engage 
in tree planting, and insists that railroad corporations must plant in their 
own interest. 

If farmers would generally plant one side the highways, and a row or 
belt of sheltering trees on the north side of their farms, and they and the 
Governments should see that all untillable grounds should be kept in the 
growth of timber as far as practicable, exempt from plunder and fires, we 
should attain that proportion of trees over the whole country which is re- 
ciuired by the best interests of agriculture and the general good of the 
people. This should be the aim of all. 

In Pennsylvania we have begun no considerable tree planting, except it 
be that in Fairmount Park. There, besides previous plantings, the Com- 
missioners have planted within eighteen months, 12,083 trees, of the value 
of $14,490 ; and have yet in the Nursery 33,;j04 trees. 

From the reserved moiety of the Michaux income, the American Philo- 
sophical Society has established in the Park the course of Lectures de- 
livered by Dr. Rothrock on Arboriculture and Botanj^, who dwells em- 
phatically upon the importance of woods for the preservation of water and 
soil and in protection of agricultur.'. 

Citizens of Pennsylvania have, however, commenced an important Syl- 
viculture in Eastern Virginia. Landreth & Co., of Philadelphia, have for 
six years and a half been planting oOO acres of black walnuts, and in a few 
years will complete some thousand acres in hard wood nut bearing trees. 
Mr. Burnet Landreth, a member of the firm, without fear of inciting ri- 
valry, and without any apprehension that the growing market for timber 
can be overstocked, has published their doings in the Journal of Forestry, 
published in London. He seems actuated by the spirit of patriotism more 
than the love of profit. He laments that the White Pines of our State have 



11 

gone, and tliose t'urUier north-west aix' rapidly going, leaving no succession 
in kind, and tlic Oaks and Hi'mlocks are fast departing, which are some- 
times cut down to get the bark for the tanner, with but the contingent 
chance of selling the wood for cross ties and lumber. When felled both 
objects should certainly be secured. 

Landreth & Co., buy worn-out lands cheaply ; buy them near navigable 
waters, for clieap transportation by water, sow or plant nuts of chestnut, 
walnut and hickory, or sow the seeds of the white pine, which they find to 
grow iu the South, and leave the yellow pine seeds to sow themselves. 
They see a boundless area of timber growth before them and others ; trees 
of slow return ; but know that the market will await its maturity, and will 
be ever a rising one, as the country shall become more shorn of timber, 
denser in population, and more demand the consumption of timber. The 
profit awaited will be surely compensatory for capital, labor and interest 
thus invested ; and though for many years unproductive of annual income, 
the timber crop when it matures will be found to cover all the investment, 
with no interest of capital expended, but there self invested by ligneous 
increment. It is an inheritance laid up for heirs ; a good to them ; a good 
to the nation. Yet the harvest is not all postponed, and to be but once, at 
distant period ; for the process may be one of successive thinnings of small 
trees thickly planted, and of old trees of dift'erent kinds maturing at dif- 
ferent times, thus bringing repetitions of profits. The sowings of nature 
and the plantings of man may also be in every successive year, and 
different tracts thus yield annual returns as trees are fit to cut. The plant- 
ings should be annually repeated as the woods shall be thinned. It should 
be a rule, except in needed thinnings, never to cut down thrifty trees that 
are yet rapidly making wood. An economical instinct will teach all this 
to the provident forest proprietor. As certainly as the axe and portable 
saw mills cut up the best timber of the forest, as they surely are rapidly do- 
ing, the plantings of man, and the protected growths of nature, should fol- 
low with equal pace, with selections of kinds most profitable, except where 
cleared land is fit and required for agriculture. The whole country has 
but its 25 per cent., while there are excessive quantities in large tracts in 
some sections, and no forests in other vast areas. This shows another dis- 
tribution of trees must be a work of the future. 

Philadelphia should not overlook the interest she has in keeping well 
wooded the sources of the Schuylkill, the river that gives her chief supply 
of water. The Schuylkill Navigation Company began this beneficent 
w^ork of suj)plj' of water and wooded protection by building their mag- 
nificent mountain reservoirs, and buying wooded tracts, by the shade of 
trees to protect the springs that supply them. 

It will also be to the interest of the city to build, in the future, more 
mountain reservoirs, and protect their supply of trees, that she may have 
adequate stores of waters, there to meet the exigency of summer drouths, 
when here population shall have increased. The secured wooded water 
sheds, and tlie plantings in progress in Fairniount Park subserve the same 



12 

purposu ; but with the city's growtii her needs will increase of conserving 
her water supply at a distance, that our second beautiful river may con- 
tinue adequate to the wants of a meti"opoIis of millions. 

Here should be specially brought to notice, the necessity of a vast 
amount of tree planting in the jDrairies and plains that extend over the 
central length and breadth of our northern continent. With great depths 
of alluvial soil, protected by the heavy prairie grasses, which through 
the centuries have annually added their decaying richness to the vegetable 
mould, the rolling or flat prairie regions have but occasional groups of 
trees. The cause of the absence of trees seems to have been the frequent 
tires that swept over the prairies, for wherever protected by the settlers 
from fire a thick and flourishing growtli of trees springs up, and the plant- 
ings also thrive. 

The prairies need trees the more, to induce precipitation of rain, ;jnd to 
protect the soil, springs and streams from evaporation, by reason of the 
immense extent of wheat and corn crops now grown in continuous fields 
of a thousand or more acres, each spring sown or planted, thus exposing 
the bare ground for more than half the year, in the intervals of the crops, 
to the drying sun, to be swept away alike by winds and rains. And heavy 
belts of growing timber are wanted for more than the attraction and reten- 
tion of rain and water ; are wanted to make it something more possible to 
arrest the great prairie fires ; and also, to break the force of the storms and 
tornadoes that so destructively sweep the central parts of our continent ; 
where no sheltering mountains or hills exist to arrest the force, and dis- 
perse the winds. Some sucli benefit has already been perceived and ac- 
knowledged. 

In the prairie and treeless regions of the central West, where settled, the 
settlers have perceived it to be their interest to plant, and to save the spon- 
taneous growths of trees, and beyond the incentive of interest, the pleas- 
urable occupation has kindled an enthusi;ism for Arboriculture. The fires 
are fought, and less frequently lighted ; coal, when at hand, is preferably 
used for fuel, and the spontaneous second growth is general!}' better than 
the original forests where these had been. In the State of Minnesota, 
Martin County, "thousands of acres of j'oung timber trees are growing, 
some spontaneous, others planted;" in Redwood, "The cultivation of 
forests on the prairies will amount to from 1 to 20 acres per quarter sec- 
tion ;" in Steele County, "Some attention has been given to planting forest 
trees, and the interest is on the increase, as the experiments have been 
quite successful ; many small groves of quick growing varieties being 
planted near dwellings ;" in Watonwan, 1,000 acres are under cultivation, 
in groves of from one to 12 acres ; in Nobles County, " An association has 
been organized, and the children in each school are being organized into 
Centennial bands of little foresters, with promises of badges and more 
valuable prizes for planting trees." In the State of Iowa, Crawford 
County, " Large numbers of the more thrifty isxrmers have planted groves 
of maples, cotton wood, black walnut and box elder, which have grown 



with ^vc-.xl nipidily, and the vast expanse of treeless prairies, wliich a fevv 
years ago stretclicd in every direction as far as tlie eye could st'c, is now 
dotted over with beautiful groves, which greatly add to the wealth of the 
county," and in Cherokee County it is reported, "A great many are plani- 
ing timber, which grows fast." For Missouri it is reported that, " In the 
portions of (he State that were originally prairie land or openings, sponta- 
neous and thrifty forests have sprung up and increased, as increasing set- 
tlements have prevented annual prairie fires ;" for the Count}' of Greene it 
is stated, "Nearly all the old timber is inferior, for the reascm that the 
woodlands produce abundant grass, which is burned over every season, 
and injures the trunks of the trees. Forests, from which the fires arc kept 
are very thrift}', many of the trees adding one inch to their diameter an- 
nually." See Agl. Rep. for 1875. 

For Kansas and Nebraska, the Report of 1875, says, "On original 
prairies, forest growth is increasing rapidly from two causes : The first is, 
the arrest of prairie fires by cultivation, which has resulted extensively in 
the spontaneous springing up on uncultivated portions of a thick growth 
of young trees, which grow with wonderful thrift ; the second cause being 
the planting (5f forests, now doubly stimulated by legislative encourage - 
inent, and by assured success in respect to both growth and profit. In ad- 
dition to personal advantages to the planter, in the increased comfort, 
beauty, and money value of his premises, it is claimed that a public bene- 
fit is already perceptible in a modification of the climate, particularly in 
the way of assuaging the severity of the once unimpeded winds." Of Jef- 
ferson Count}', Kansas, it is said, " The forest area is rapidly increasing in 
consequence of stopping the prairie fires, and the planting of new groves ;" 
while of Barton County, it is said, "Flattering results have been obtained 
from planting tree seeds and cuttings." 

Tree planting in California is receiving much attention. Before the 1st 
January, 1876, James T. Stratton had planted in Alameda County, 195 
acres with 130,000 Eucalyptus trees, that is the Blue Gum of Australia, 
eight feet apart each way. The company owning the railroad between 
Los Angelos and Anaheim, in Southern California, had planted 140 acres, 
with about 80,000 Eucalyi)tus trees. In the spring of this year it was an- 
nounced that, "The Central Pacific Railroad Company has lately ar^-angcd 
to have 40,000 Eucalyptus Olohulus trees set along the 500 miles of the 
right of way of the company. This is only the first installment, as it will 
require about 800,000 of the trees for the 500 miles of valley where they 
are to be cultivated. The immediate object of the plan is to increase the 
humidity of the region, and lesson the liability to droughts." 

The United States Government has begun to take a deep interest in the 
subject of the preservation of American Forests. This appears to liave 
had inception in a Memorial to Congress of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, upon the cuUivation of timber and tlie pre- 
servation of forests, in August 187o, signed by Franklin B. Hough and 
George B. Emt-rson their Committee, which being referred to the Com- 



14 ♦ 

mittec of the House on Public Liinds, Dr. Hougli, on March 10th, 1874, 
submitted to Washington Townsend, Chairman of that Committee, his 
views at lengtli on the subject of the Memorial. These Avere printed by 
order of the House, in a Report of 118 pages. It is a full, yet compact 
statement of many facts and statistics, which abundantly sustain the con- 
clusions herein expressed. There followed in October 1875, the Report of 
the Commissioner of Agriculture for that year, a division under the head 
"Statistics of Forestry," from p. 244 to 358, giving the forest area of 
every county in every State in the Union, in number of acres, and the 
percentage of the whole number in the County and State, with other valu- 
able information. It is very important in its promise of future reports, and 
also from the fact that will be the basis of contrast, to show the progress of 
reforesting the country'. An Act of Congress of August 15th, 1876, gives 
earnest that Congress will guard this great national interest, especially as 
it made an appropriation for the compensation of a competent commis- 
sioner to investigate and report upon the preservation of the forests, and 
the exportation of timber and other products of the forests. I have an an- 
swer to my inquiry, from Dr. Hough, the Commissioner, saying that he is 
at Washington to print his report in that of the Commissioner of Agricul- 
ture ; that he has tried to do justice to Michaux and others ; thinks the 
facts he has collected opportune, and that the interest in forestry is grow- 
ing. The President's Message to Congress of this month earnestly recom- 
mends legislation to protect the timber belonging to the Government, and 
the preservation of the forests of our country. 

The proposition before us invokes physical causes for physical effects. 
Yet are these very interesting to our mind and feelings. They concern 
deeply human life and happiness. The mind must plan and execute the 
work ; must appreciate the beneficent results, and not without gratified 
emotions in view of the good to come. The purposed means will seek to 
iiifiuence the elements ; in a measure to rule the powers of the air ; to draw 
rains from the clouds ; to detain the waters in the earth to flush the springs 
and swell the streams ; will botli drain the marshes, and cause wells and 
fountains to flow in the desert ; cause the grasses and cereals to cover the 
fields, and the forests and woods and trees to grow on mountains, hills and 
plains. Yet all this, is not to speak or act presumptuously, for it is but 
to use the powers placed at man's disposal. It is to do more extensively 
what has been done ; what is therefore practicable. Man is to engineer, 
to plow and plant, and sow and water, but God must give the increase. 
Man is to obey the first command, "Replenish the earth and subdue it." 
Obedient to this we have the promise, "I will give you rain in due sea- 
son, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall 
yield their fruit." 

That the evils reviewed have been terribly aggravated during manj^ 
centuries, should not discourage us. The full remedy may require as many 
centuries as the cause has been operative ; but every step of repair is bene- 
ficent progress. The world is now fuller of resources than ever before. 
Man's enginery is gigantic ; his machinery is imlmed with intelligence. 



15 

He can dostroj- faster ; but knows liow to repair his iiijurios sooner. But 
to cease to do evil is to begin to do good ; for Nature only asks man's 
leave to renew her benelicent growths. Stop the fires on tiic prairies, 
lighted by the hunter for unknown centuries, and Nature will clothe them 
■with forests. Plant with trees, and protect the self sown seeds of the 
forests along the waste lands of the seaboard, and they are born who may 
see them all reforested ; see them also renew a virgin forest soil. We have 
just begun many beginnings. Let them be followed up by many zealous 
co-operators, and our country will exhibit a i)rosperity, salubrity, and 
beauty never before seen, and in due time will become the dwelling-place 
of millions more human souls, else not to be born ; souls to be happy on 
earth, and to people heaven. If this world was worth the making it 
must be man's duty to make it teem with happy life. 

Addenda. — Since reading the above paper. Prof. Lesley has kindly sent 
me two quotations which strongly support the views and purposes of the 
essay read. E. K. P. 

I. "The country from the head of St. Croix river [in Wisconsin] to 
Bayfield is covered with drift. . . . not an outcrop for fifty miles. j\Iost 
of the district is destitute of living springs and streams. Numerous 

depressions in the drift are partly filled with water The soil is 

sandy and barren, supporting only a stunted growth of 'jack ' pines and . 
'scrub oaks.' Fii'e has killed the timber over wide areas, on which grass 
was growing, exhibiting before our eyes nature's simple method of con- 
verting W'oodland into prairie. The reverse process is just as simple. 
When prairies are no longer swept over by fire, timber springs up, re-eon- 
verting prairie into woodland. Grass, with fire as an ally, can beat timber. 
Timber can beat grass when it has no fire to fight." — Report of O. W 
Wight in Geology of Wisconsin, p. 7(5, 1877. 

II. " In the whole Kingdom of King Devanampriya Priyadarsin, as also 
in the adjacent countries ; . . . . the Ivingdom of Antiochus, the Grecian 
King and his neighbor Kings, the system of caring for the sick, both men 
and cattle, followed by King D. P. has been everj'where brought into 
practice. Wherever useful healing herbs for man and beast failed, these 
he introduced and cultivated. Wherever roots and fruits were wanting, 
these he introduced and cultivated. lie caused also wells lo be dug and 
trees to be planted on the roads for the benefit of cattle."— Dr. Kern's 
translation of the Girnar rock inscription in India, second section of the 
tablet. See p. 193 and Plate 1. Jour. K. Asiat. S. Vol. IX. part 2. July, 1877. 

What Christian nation has provided so humanely for traveling man and 
beast? The purpose of trees and shade as above advocated is immediately 
practicable and beneficent. Let us also open the roadside springs and 
wells, and furnish the cup for cold water ; and maintain the supply of 
medicinal herbs, roots and barks. This we will begin in the Park as soon 
as the Pharmaceutists will lend their efficient co-oi%ration. Except in the 
hospitals of our large cities, and county poorhouscs, tlie sick wayfarer 
must depend upon humane tavern landlords and benevolent citizens?, who 
seldom fail in Christian charity. But may God and man save us from I'ratnps] 



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